Every year the great new entertainment medium of television gets nearer perfection — and the film makers are wondering how it is going to affect them so wrote a John K. Newnham in September, 1938. It is really interesting to ponder on these words, because the following year the second world war brought an abrupt end to BBC TV broadcasts for several years, so whatever “perfection” of television broadcasting they anticipated didn’t come to fruition. I wonder in what context this meant; improved picture quality? Types of programmes? Improved sound? Or all of those? Whatever they had in mind, they probably were not envisioning the sharp full colour high resolution of modern television programmes. In terms of human history, 84 years is a very short time, but I think it’s true to say that anyone in 1938 would’ve been astonished at the picture clarity and colour of today’s television sets, not to mention the size of them! Televisions in those early days had tiny screens set into big wooden cabinets. This web page has a photograph of one.
https://www.radiocraft.co.uk/radiolympia/radiolympia.htm
Below we can get an idea of what people would have viewed.
The following month, an unexpected thing happened. Strange atmospheric conditions caused a BBC broadcast to be picked up in New York. Thanks to two television enthusiasts, who had the foresight to capture the BBC images using a cine camera in front of a television screen, we can see a few moments of British television from those early days.
It will not be long before all cinemas will be equipped with television sets. I did a wry smile at this one until I read on that they did indeed equip some cinemas with television sets, but they seemed to have been there as a novelty that attracted the curious rather than large audiences. The BBC also were not keen on broadcasting their programmes in cinemas, and the poor picture quality did not lend itself to large cinema screens. Despite the title, I think cinemas and film makers had little competition from television in the late 1930s, especially as most people couldn’t afford to buy a television set, and many areas in not only Britain but other countries had no coverage.
Mr Newnham, however, was very enthusiastic about the idea of installing television sets in cinemas, and thought that the two could become “allies” rather than “enemies.” But it was not to be. The outbreak of the following year put a stop to television in London for several years. It’s interesting to wonder what developments might’ve gone ahead had there been no war.
The same concern- that people might stay at home and watch television rather than going out to a cinema to see a film, is one that has been an ongoing topic of conversation and concern since television started to get established. It did take awhile before cinemas got closed down, but yet they have survived even in our age of internet streaming.
The whole article can be downloaded to read in this pdf.
Pages of Radioland. 
Much later than the article, in 1953, my parents bought a television set. It was the first in our street, and everyone came in to watch the Coronation on it. As you say, it was a tiny screen (10 inches) inside a huge decorative wooden box. We still had it when I was old enough to watch TV, and I remember watching Andy Pandy and Muffin The Mule on it.
Best wishes, Pete.
My mother’s mother (who we called “Nanny”) persuaded Grandpa to buy a TV to watch the Coronation. My mother told me that Nanny made rather an event of it, doing food and inviting neighbours round. It was a long coronation ( 3 hours) and my mother only being 10 years old, got bored of it! In contrast the media is reporting that King Charles has decided to cut his coronation to an hour. I remember Andy Pandy- he was on TV in the 1970s as well.
What a wonderful blog post, I really enjoyed this! The videos you included were a great addition, especially seeing the home movie recording in New York of the BBC broadcast. I remembered you told me in an email about it, so I loved getting to see it!
I liked reading Newnham’s thoughts in Radio Pictorial. It was interesting to read the reports of how cinemas wanted to utilize TV broadcasts. The part where Newnham compared 10 years before of silent to talking pictures versus film and TV made me think even more the amount of change that this generation lived through. By the way, I noticed on the second page in the column about film actors who already appeared in a broadcast, Patricia Ellis was listed. She isn’t remembered very well today, but it was nice to see her mentioned. 🙂
Thank you for your comments Rachel. I apologise for the tardy reply: been busy with updating my sitting room and clearing out stuff. There were indeed changes in this era, but plenty of changes in the past 40 years too! I confess I had not heard of Patricia Ellis before.